How to Fix OBS Display Capture Black Screen (5 Expert FIX)

Mostly the users having an external graphic card have an OBS display capture black screen problems.

But whatever the problem is, it becomes like a real pain in the ass.

You might be in the middle of creating a video or recording game and notice OBS just record a blank screen or I can say black screen.

It becomes more painful when you don’t know how exactly to fix this.

But no need to worry, I am sharing the best 4 methods to fix this OBS studio black screen.

 

Why is my OBS Screen capture black?

Let’s quickly know that why OBS is not recording the screen properly and if recording then why monitor capture comes in a black screen.

Here are a few major causes

¤ Graphics Settings

¤ Hardware Acceleration (Browser)

¤ Game Mode

¤ Windows Update

These are the major reasons behind OBS display capture black screen

 

How to Fix OBS Display Capture Black Screen (Windows)

I can assure you that if you properly follow the below solutions, your black screen issues on OBS will be surely fixed.

OBS stands in the top 6 streaming software for twitch and is used by most of the streamers and creators.

I am sharing the best 5 solutions, starting with the most effective one.

 

FIX #1 – Check Windows Graphic Settings

The reason that you actually get a black screen in OBS is that your computer for some reason is trying to pull the actual screen from the NVIDIA GeForce instead of the Intel processor.

Don’t know why and yes probably in your case you may have some other graphic card conflict.

Let’s see how this needs to be fixed.

1. Right-click on your Windows desktop and choose “Display settings” from the option.
2. Now from the display settings window, scroll down to the bottom to find “Graphics” or “Graphics settings” and click on it.

   

3. Under the Custom option for apps, click on “Browse” to add an app.
4. Here we need to browser OBS.exe, so follow the path. This PC > C drive > Program files > OBS Studio > bin > 64 or 32 bit > OBS.exe

   

    

    

5. Click on OBS.exe and then click on Add. OBS will now be added to the apps.
6. Now click on the OBS studio app and then click on Options. This will bring up the graphic specification.

   

7. So, here you will see a bar showing which card is for Power saving and High performance.
8. You need to go with the one that indicated Intel or Ryzen.

   

9. So let’s say, I am using Intel and if the bar says use Power saving for Intel, I will choose the Power saving option.

Once done click on Save and restart your PC to check if this has resolved the issue.

You can also try with high performance in case power saving doesn’t work just as a try.

 

FIX #2 – Disable Chrome Hardware Acceleration

Many users also reported that they had trouble while recording a Google chrome window.

One of the biggest causes for OBS display capture black screen on chrome can be because of enabled hardware acceleration.

Twitch buffering and freezing issues can also be fixed by disabling this.

I won’t go into much detail and let’s jump to the solution.

So here we need to disable the hardware acceleration in Google Chrome.

1. Open Google Chrome browser and click on the 3 dots located at the very right-hand top.
2. From the options drop-down, look for settings and click on them.
3. Now scroll down to the bottom and click on advanced to explore more options.
4. Scroll again to the bottom again to come to the System section.

   

5. Here you will find an option Use “Hardware acceleration when available”. Just turn the toggle switch off to disable this feature.

Once done it might ask you to “Relaunch Chrome”, but I would also recommend restarting your PC.

 

FIX #3 – Disable Windows Game Mode

Game mode on Windows 10 was launched to enhance the gaming experience and performance.

But this occupies a lot of CPU and Graphic usage.

This even automatically disabled a few features and programs in the background.

There can be such black screen issues while capturing games on OBS due to this high usage.

Try disabling the game mode on Windows 10 or 11.

1. On the Windows search box, type Game mode, and from the suggestion choose Game Mode settings.

   

2. You will find here Game Mode, click on the toggle switch to disable it.

Once disabled, restart your PC and check if the issue has been resolved.

 

FIX #4 – Update OBS

Again like every app OBS can also have issues while performing with an outdated version.

OBS developers keep on working to fix new bugs and add more new features.

So, if you have tried everything and still struggling with OBS display capture black screen, then you must try updating OBS.

This will not only update your OBS studio or stream lab but may also add some more features.

However, there are many other ways to update OBS, but I am sharing the simplest one.

• Launch OBS and then click on the Help tab located at the top bar of the OBS application.

  

• From the options drop-down, click on Check for Updates.

If the update is available, it will let you know and give simple instructions to update OBS.

 

FIX #5 – Update Windows

Why I am sharing this extra fix, but recently this worked for one user who told me on Instagram.

Outdated Windows may also create problems with Streamlab OBS showing a black screen on display capture.

Who knows, if you are still reading and probably your issue is not resolved, then you can try this solution.

Updating Windows is very simple, follow the below steps.

1. On your Windows search icon type update and from the suggestion box choose “Check for Updates”.
2. Update Window will now be up, if the update is available it will show you. You can also click on Check updates and follow the steps to update it.

Once the issue is fixed and if you stream then better do a test stream on twitch first to make sure it’s recording properly.

How to Fix OBS Display Capture Black Screen (Mac)

Mac users had also issues with OBS black screen while display and window capture.

Probably you may have these black screen issues randomly but many users get black screens while adding the display capture.

Just try this best possible fix on Mac.

 

Fix OBS Display Capture Black Screen by Allowing OBS to Record

A black screen on OBS mac can also be if OBS is not allowed in the recording permission.

Follow the below steps to add OBS to the allow list.

Before proceeding make sure to close OBS completely from the Force Quit option.

1. Click on the apple icon on the left-hand top and from the options choose System preference.
2. From the system preference, find and click on “Security & Privacy”.
3. Make sure you are in the privacy tab and from the left-hand menu scroll down to find and click Screen Recording.

   

4. Click on the lock below to unlock the option and then click on the box of OBS from the right-hand box to select it.
5. Click on the lock icon again to save the changes.

 

Bottom Line

Hopefully, these solutions will surely help you to fix OBS display capture black screen both on Windows and Mac.

Additionally, I would also recommend starting OBS as an administrator after every fix.

Please let me know which solution worked for you and in case if you still have a problem with OBS studio or Streamlab, let us know in the comment box.